Model-independent observation of exotic contributions to $B^0\to J/\ddot{I}ˆK^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-}$ decays

Abstract

An angular analysis of $B^0\to J/\ddot{I}ˆK^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-}$ decays is performed, using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3~${\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector. The $m(K^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-})$ spectrum is divided into fine bins. In each $m(K^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-})$ bin, the hypothesis that the three-dimensional angular distribution can be described by structures induced only by $K^{\ast }$ resonances is examined, making minimal assumptions about the $K^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-}$ system. The data reject the $K^{\ast }$-only hypothesis with a large significance, implying the observation of exotic contributions in a model-independent fashion. Inspection of the $m(J/\ddot{I}ˆ\ddot{I}{€}^{-})$ versus $m(K^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{-})$ plane suggests structures near $m(J/\ddot{I}ˆ\ddot{I}{€}^{-})=4200$~MeV and 4600~MeV.

All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2018-043.html